EXCLUSIVE: Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) has come aboard to star opposite Thomas Sadoski (The Newsroom) in Jill Takes a Break, a new comedic drama directed by Independent Spirit Award winner Liz Cardenas.
Written by Scott Rodgers, the film follows Jill (Smulders), a bartender in Long Beach who impulsively buys the dive bar she’s worked at for years — only to discover that owning the chaos isn’t the same as surviving it.
Attached to the project since its early development, Sadoski will play Jill’s longtime partner, Vaughn, and also serve in a producorial capacity. The film will be produced by Talon Entertainment, Driven Equation and Ten to the Six Pictures, with Steven Demmler (Oh, Canada, Bookworm) and Sundance fellow Helena Sardinha (Satisfaction) also attached as producers.
In 2024, Jill Takes a Break won a development award from the Austin Film Society, founded by Richard Linklater, and Cardenas was invited to participate in its invitation-only Artist Intensive, where her Creative Advisor was Fargo’s Noah Hawley. Selected for the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program, the film will be the rare one shooting in Los Angeles this summer.
Best known for starring in How I Met Your Mother, and for her role as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill in numerous Marvel films, Smulders has most recently been seen on shows like Shrinking and Accused. Upcoming, she has Easy’s Waltz from True Detective‘s Nic Pizzolatto, where she stars alongside Vince Vaughn, Al Pacino, and Simon Rex.
Sadoski has been seen starring in series like The Newsroom, Life in Pieces, The Crowded Room and American Sports Story, along with multiple John Wick films and more. Most recently, he signed on to the dramedy Adult Children from director Rich Newey.
Cardenas is best known as the producer or co-producer of titles like 7 Days, Never Goin’ Back, and A Ghost Story. Previously, she’s also directed the award-winning shorts Imago and Treading Water.
Smulders is represented by UTA and Gang, Tyre, Ramer; Sadoski by Verve, Amplified, and Johnson Shapiro, Slewett & Cole; and Demmler by WME, 3 Arts, and Ramo Law.
